ome of the
children talked much of a White Angel, which did use to forbid them,
what the Devil had bid them to do, and assure them that these things
would not last long; but that what had been done was permitted for the
wickedness of the people. This White Angel would sometimes rescue the
children, from going in with the witches."--_Wonders_, 50.

Mr. Hale also notices this feature of the Salem Trials--that the
witnesses swore to "representations of heavenly beauty, white men."

Mather brought the story of this witchcraft "in Sweedland," before the
public, in America; he had the book that contained it; and was active
in giving it circulation. There can be little doubt that he was the
channel through which it found its way to the girls in the hamlet of
Salem Village. He was, it is evident, intimate with Parris. How far the
latter received his ideas from him, is, _as yet_, unknown. That they
were involved in the same responsibility is clear from the fact that
Parris fell back upon him for protection, and relied upon him, as his
champion, throughout his controversy with his people, occasioned by the
witchcraft transactions.

When these considerations are duly weighed, in connection with his
language in the passage of his Diary, just quoted--"I saw a most
charming instance of prudence and patience" in the Judges: "My
compassion upon the sight of their difficulties," "raised by my journeys
to Salem, the chief seat of those diabolical vexations"--it seems
necessary to infer, that his opportunities of _seeing_ all this, on the
occasions of his "journeys to Salem," must have been afforded by
attending the Examinations, held by the Magistrates who were also
Judges; as it is established, by his own averment, that he never saw
them on the Bench of the Court, at the Jury-trials. It is, therefore,
rendered certain, by his own language and by all the facts belonging to
the subject, that the purpose of his "journeys to Salem" was to attend
the Examinations. We are, indeed, shut up to this conclusion.

The Examinations were going on from the first of March, far into the
Summer of 1692. There is no intimation that either of the Mathers
uttered a syllable against the course pursued in them, before or after
the middle of May, when the Government passed into their almost
exclusive possession. All the way through, spectral evidence was
admitted, without restraint or a symptom of misgiving, on their part;
and, whether present or absent,